Winter (session) is here! #SaveOurPrivacy

The winter session of parliament will start on December 11, 2018 in which important legislative business on privacy will be conducted across three key legislations. Read on, the status for each one of them.

The Data Protection Bill which has been on everyone's mind and what #SaveOurPrivacy is primarily about is not listed in the tentative legislative agenda for either the Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha. We have also checked with some sources who say it is unlikely to come up. Irrespective of this we are prepared in case of any last minute changes even as we have informed that work on it has been put on the back-burner. Why? Read on.

We have been told (and some press reports also seem to indicate as much) that the Government is working on a range of amendments to the Aadhaar Act, including the most mischievous reintroduction of its use by private entities (which was struck down by the Supreme Court as unconstitutional). We will keep a close watch on this to ensure that the purposeless use of Aadhaar is not permitted (our position on Aadhaar).

Much more urgently... in the last session the DNA Profiling Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha. Some MPs even filed notices for opposition. Now, it is listed for consideration and passing. There is a real danger that this ill-thought out proposal can become a law. Without a credible privacy law such as the Indian Privacy Code, 2018 in place. To increase awareness and parliamentary engagement we will tomorrow publish a detailed analysis on what are the top problems with the DNA Profiling Bill.

Call to action

If you work in a legislators office and want to reach out to us please do ping us on [email protected]. We can help provide context and brief lawmakers with expert knowledge on privacy and data protection.

Call your MP on these legislations (find out who by using MyNeta and the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha websites). A phone call is incredibly effective in putting your view across to them as a voter.

Donate generously to IFF which powers #SaveOurPrivacy. More money, means more resources in this long fight to win on privacy.